Seatbelts have been widely used in the United States since the 1960's. Their usefulness in protecting lives has been demonstrated many times over. However, many individuals still refuse to use seatbelts, leading to many injuries and fatalities that could otherwise be avoided. This failure to use seatbelts is exacerbated in the operation of industrial equipment such as vehicles used in commercial enterprises, factories, construction sites and mines. As will be appreciated, accidents involving such vehicles are potentially more dangerous then those involving passenger vehicles.
To help avoid potentially serious injuries as well as stiff penalties for violations of workplace safety regulations, e.g., Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA); Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA); etc., employers often take actions to ensure that their employees utilize seatbelts while operating motorized vehicles. Several methods for ensuring that seatbelts are correctly used have been tried or proposed. These include fining employees who are discovered operating a vehicle while not using a seatbelt and utilizing various devices that prevent a vehicle from starting or moving unless the seatbelt is latched. However, imposing fines still requires some method of determining whether an operator has properly fastened the vehicle's seatbelt. Furthermore, an operator can easily defeat the seatbelt interlocks by pulling out the seatbelt, fastening it, and sitting upon it. Therefore, a need exists for a system which determines not just whether a vehicle's seatbelt is buckled, but that the seatbelt is fastened in the correct and intended manner.